Increase distance between text and title on the y-axis

Question

The y-axis title appears too close to the axis text.

ggplot(mpg, aes(cty, hwy)) + geom_point()

ggplot output

I have tried changing the value of many parameters with theme() but none seems to help.

score 207 · Accepted Answer · edited Feb 07 '21 at 19:54

207

From ggplot2 2.0.0 you can use the margin = argument of element_text() to change the distance between the axis title and the numbers. Set the values of the margin on top, right, bottom, and left side of the element.

ggplot(mpg, aes(cty, hwy)) + geom_point()+
  theme(axis.title.y = element_text(margin = margin(t = 0, r = 20, b = 0, l = 0)))

margin can also be used for other element_text elements (see ?theme), such as axis.text.x, axis.text.y and title.

addition

in order to set the margin for axis titles when the axis has a different position (e.g., with scale_x_...(position = "top"), you'll need a different theme setting - e.g. axis.title.x.top. See https://github.com/tidyverse/ggplot2/issues/4343.

edited Feb 07 '21 at 19:54

tjebo

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answered Jan 23 '13 at 18:57

Didzis Elferts

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This method does not seem to work with `facet_grid`, whereas the answer suggested by Adam B does (i.e. a line break using \n) – Anonymous Aug 25 '18 at 15:32
@Anonymous Can you give an example where this `margin =` argument doesn't wokr? – Didzis Elferts Aug 25 '18 at 15:41
I tried it with `theme_bw`. Sorry, posting the whole code is unreadable / messy... – Anonymous Aug 25 '18 at 16:10
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@Anonymous If you use `theme_bw()` then `theme_bw()` should be used before `theme()` function because in predefinied themes there is allready argument for axis titles. – Didzis Elferts Aug 25 '18 at 16:15
Thanks for the clarification! – Anonymous Aug 25 '18 at 16:25
How can I know which theme is in use? `plot2 – DavveK Sep 30 '18 at 18:31
My comment only applies when using ggplotly. Using print() the margin method above has effect. – DavveK Sep 30 '18 at 18:43
Didzis, I allowed myself to add the information about failing with different axis positions, into the answer rather than as a comment - for better visibility. Hope this is alright for you – tjebo Feb 07 '21 at 19:21

score 125 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 07 '14 at 09:42

125

Based on this forum post: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/ggplot2/mK9DR3dKIBU

Sounds like the easiest thing to do is to add a line break (\n) before your x axis, and after your y axis labels. Seems a lot easier (although dumber) than the solutions posted above.

ggplot(mpg, aes(cty, hwy)) + 
    geom_point() + 
    xlab("\nYour_x_Label") + ylab("Your_y_Label\n")

Hope that helps!

answered Nov 07 '14 at 09:42

Adam B

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I usually use this method, it's much faster and it doesn't require to add yet another option to ggplot unless I need some specific tweaking. – R. Prost Mar 08 '18 at 15:47

Omar Wasow · Answer 3 · 2022-05-11T19:52:18.043

A solution that offers more fine-grained control than \n but is less cumbersome than adding margins is to use vjust in the theme function.

For adjusting the position on the y-axis or (x-axis) to add space, this often requires using a positive value for vjust (y-axis) or a negative value for vjust (x-axis) as in theme(axis.title.y = element_text(vjust = 2)). See a fully worked example below.

# load patchwork to show plots side-by-side
library(patchwork)
library(ggplot2)

# Plot A: just for comparison, moving titles *inward*
p1 <- ggplot(mpg, aes(cty, hwy)) + 
  geom_point() + 
  theme_gray() +
  theme(
    axis.title.y = element_text(vjust = -3),
    axis.title.x = element_text(vjust = +3)
  ) 

# Plot B: what we want, moving titles *outward*
p2 <- ggplot(mpg, aes(cty, hwy)) + 
  geom_point() + 
  theme_gray() +
  theme(
    axis.title.y = element_text(vjust = +3),
    axis.title.x = element_text(vjust = -0.75)
  ) 

# show plots side-by-side with patchwork package
p1 + p2 +
  plot_annotation(tag_levels = "A")

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Feb 28 '21 at 10:54

For some reason the margin argument suggested by Didzis Elferts did not work for me. So, I used a different hack that is more flexible than adding an empty line but needs giving up the axis ticks.

myplot + theme(axis.ticks.x = element_blank(), axis.ticks.length.x = unit(3.25, "cm")

I guess, one can add the tick marks manually with geom_segment. Another possibility might be [ggalt::annotation_ticks][1]but I didn't bother trying either (note the current version of ggalt on CRAN (0.4) does not support this function, the one on github (0.6) does).

Increase distance between text and title on the y-axis

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